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Secrets to Scaling Your Real Estate Investments: The Key Strategies You Need

By December 17, 2025Real Estate Pros Show


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Show Summary

In this conversation, Spencer Cullor discusses his journey in the multifamily investment sector, highlighting the integration of construction, property management, and investment strategies. He shares insights on navigating market challenges, the importance of building relationships, and adapting to constant changes in the business landscape. Spencer emphasizes the significance of technology in operations and offers advice for new investors, advocating for a patient and strategic approach to real estate investment.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Spencer Cullor (00:00)
    the only thing I can tell you for sure in business is that there is constant change. What you’re doing today may not work tomorrow, but you’ve got to be confident in your ability to adapt as those things go.

    Q Edmonds (01:47)
    Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. We’re here today again with another fantastic guest. Of course, know, I like to say I always counter the privilege to be able to talk to different people, get their perspective and what they do in real estate. And today’s no difference. have someone listen, you know, they do multifamily investing, but listen, shrimps on property management. They do vertical integration. Listen,

    Definitely finding the value through their operations and what they do. So I’m excited for them to talk to you all about it. And I would love to introduce you to Mr. Cullor.

    So, ⁓ man, I’m so excited to have you here. I appreciate you being here, sir. And listen, I just want to dive in. I want you to kind of take us into your world. Tell us what your main focus is these days. If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story, we love origin stories. So we, you know, if you want to do that and then tell us what markets you’re operating in. And so, ⁓ Mr. Spencer, Sir, you got the floor, man.

    Spencer Cullor (02:51)
    Okay, yeah, I appreciate you having me on here today. we started this business about 14 years ago here in Kansas City. ⁓ I was actually working at a software company and marketing and on the side was building some homes. So that’s kind of interesting to get started. And we kind of saw the market. It was right around 2008, 2009.

    market started to dry up on single-family homes and ⁓ the meltdown in the economy and I started looking for there’s got to be a better way than building a house waiting till the end to see if it’s going to sell it if you’re going to make any money. So we started looking at commercial real estate. ⁓ I started out found a retail center then multifamily ⁓ started our first project was a 40 unit deal.

    brought in one investor on that project. before we knew it, we had fired a couple of management companies. Then I decided I was going to go full time into operate operations and running multifamily projects. in about a year and a half, ⁓ I had quit my job. had gotten the operations up on that project and were able to cash out refi and

    life was good, we started adding projects. Now we’ve done 17 different projects. We’ve had 10 successful exits. ⁓ We’ve got seven current projects and another one coming on line here in a couple months and another that we’re starting to lease up on. we’ve done anything from stabilized multifamily projects to heavy value add ⁓ projects to adaptive reuse.

    We do a little bit of it all we do construction property management and acquisitions of putting together investment groups.

    Q Edmonds (05:43)
    I love it, man. Thank you. know, so well said. That’s what you’re telling me. You know, you guys, you know, y’all can do it. Like you said, said the best. Y’all can do it all. Like if somebody’s looking to get something done, it sound like this is the place to go. And so I appreciate, you know, what you’re saying, walking us through kind of how you got to where you are now, a little bit of your backstory. And I would just love to know what are some of the core strategies that you’ve identified to help you as a businessman?

    But also maybe what help you know strategies that help you personally. You know, know some people, you know, they go for walks in the morning, you know, they go to the gym. But I know, you know, sometimes in business, we got to have those strategies that kind of recenter us and kind of refocus us. So what are some business strategies, core strategies and some core personal strategies feel like to help you along this journey?

    Spencer Cullor (06:32)
    share some of our business strategies that we’ve really integrated into our business that are a key part of. We embrace technology, anything from AI to software to marketing. We’ve really, really dug in and embraced technology. think part of my software background, that was a key tenet of that.

    And then we do really strict underwriting on new projects. I think that’s really key. And we have very strict guidelines that we don’t stray from. So project has to meet certain qualifications before we’re going to be willing to do it. ⁓ On the personal side, do think sometimes you just need to step away from something. So if you’ve been working on it for a long time, you got to step away. Take a walk.

    get outside, listen to some music, do anything else but that, and then come back to it. And I found that to be really helpful in all of my just reshaping the way I’m looking at it. Usually while I’m walking or something, I’ll come up with an idea that, that’s what I need to do. Or it just becomes a lot more clear when I step back down. sometimes you just, there’s almost so far you can push before you just need to take a step back and realign.

    Q Edmonds (07:54)
    Man, listen, thank you for saying that. I actually, I’ll be honest with you, I love when I ask that question because I love to get people’s perspective on kind of just like the reset and you just hit it so eloquently, sometimes going for the walk, listening to the music, getting your mind away from it so you can come back. I always tell people, you know, the element of play is so important because it brings back

    that creativity. You know, we get older, we get bogged down responsibility. Sometimes we forget just to have fun. Like there’s a big kid inside of all of us. And sometimes just feeding that kid can feed up creativity, can just unlock blockers and have you come back and attack things in a different perspective in a different way. And so I really appreciate your insight on that question. I know people know listening that that’s really going to help them out sparking that, that different, that’s just the mindset. So I appreciate you saying that for sure.

    Spencer Cullor (08:47)
    Yeah, I have a five year old and eight year old daughter. I can tell you they keep you very creative and it kind of helps ⁓ reset everything. just gets my creative juices flowing and creative ways to solve problems or just a different way to look at things.

    Q Edmonds (09:05)
    Yeah, no, absolutely. And if you got girls, they’re definitely going to keep you on your toes. creative ways of doing that. I have a 22-year-old daughter now, but man, when she was younger, I’d show you pictures of me covering makeup, sipping on tea parties and all type of stuff. You we do what we got to do as dads, right?

    Spencer Cullor (09:24)
    I grew up in a house of almost all boys, girls, it’s whole different ballpark.

    Q Edmonds (09:28)
    wow.

    Listen, man, listen, my hat’s off and prayer to you, brother. you like you said, all girls is a whole different ballpark for sure. Yeah. So I appreciate that, that, perspective. ⁓ let me ask you as, as you, you know, was getting successful in business, carving out these strategies, you found some success. Has there been any adversity as you was building, you know, any adversity as you was getting to success, you know, always.

    Say, you know, there’s times when deals go sideways, you have to fast. And sometimes I like to show people, hey, there’s a journey to success. So have you came up into any adversity as you were building?

    Spencer Cullor (10:46)
    yeah, anybody that tells you they haven’t has not been in business long enough.

    Q Edmonds (10:51)
    Yeah,

    yeah, yeah.

    Spencer Cullor (10:53)
    especially the last five years. mean, I don’t know what normal looks like anymore. From global lockdowns and rent moratoriums to interest rates doubling and tripling in nine months. ⁓ We’ve kind of been able to kind of operate through it all. And ⁓ we’ve had projects that have gone amazing. We’ve had other projects that ⁓ inflation took off in the middle of a big renovation.

    you’re digging for some extra cash to fund the project, to get it done, to get your investors to return that they deserve. yes, there’s

    the only thing I can tell you for sure in business is that there is constant change. What you’re doing today may not work tomorrow, but you’ve got to be confident in your ability to adapt as those things go.

    So we’ve stayed pretty nimble with that.

    We’ve learned a lot from our mistakes or under budgeting or ⁓ under capitalizing a project ⁓ or having too short of an exit period or too long. ⁓ There’s there’s definite challenges that come all the time or ⁓ especially when you’re doing adaptive reuse project or renovation. You never know what’s behind the walls totally. There’s only so much due diligence you can do so.

    Keep the large contingency. can tell you that.

    Q Edmonds (12:28)
    Listen, y’all heard Mr. Spencer He’s letting you know there’s going to be adversity. That’s part of the game. Like you said, you never know what one project is going to be to the next project. But you said it best. The only constant thing is change. And so that developers, right? That sharpens our toolbox. My wife always says that a calm sea never makes an experienced sailor. A calm sea never makes an experienced sailor. Like the experience comes in.

    and the adversity. And so this is why you have staying power. And so I appreciate you sharing that with the audience. Let me ask you.

    Spencer Cullor (13:06)
    investors all the time. We put together these pretty investment packages just like everybody else, but I told them the only thing I can guarantee for sure is that it’s not going to look exactly like this in reality. After the close, we’re going to have things that are going be better, we’re going have things that are a little worse, but we try to stack up enough things in our favor ⁓ that we can handle a couple things not going exactly to plan.

    Q Edmonds (13:36)
    And I appreciate that. I appreciate that straightforward transparency and conversation. Like, listen, this is how it’s going to be in theory. Once we put this thing in play, things going to shift one way or another to the good or to the bad. And I appreciate that straightforward approach and transparency and conversation. And that lets me know that you guys, if I listen to the people that work with y’all.

    I’m pretty sure they would talk about trust. I’m pretty sure that they trust because that type of information right there in language and conversation is golden. A lot of people don’t do that. So I love hearing that from you for sure.

    Spencer Cullor (14:13)
    I appreciate that.

    Q Edmonds (14:14)
    Absolutely.

    So Mr. Spencer, tell me what’s the next real goal? Like what are you guys looking to scale next, solve next? What’s the next real goal for you?

    Spencer Cullor (14:23)
    Yeah, we’re looking at scale. we’re trying to scale our business a little better. we’ve put a lot over the last two years, we spent a lot of money on operations and implementing AI in our operations and really putting a lot of standard practices and business procedures in place so that we can scale. So we’re looking at adding more projects faster. ⁓

    and just kind of scaling up our business from where we’ve been traditionally. So we’ve got a couple of older projects that’ll probably come off our bugs. We’ve got some new projects that we’re working on now that we’ll be adding soon. So it’s really about maintaining consistency while scaling.

    Q Edmonds (15:51)
    I love it. I love it. You look in the scale. I love how you know the things about to fall off so you can start ramping up on the new projects. I absolutely love it. It’s not like you guys got a good vision in place and good goals in place that you’re going towards. And I love how you’re saying we. I hear you keep saying a lot, we. And so, Mr. Spencer, I’m going to talk to you a little bit about relationships. Are building relationships, has that benefited you? And if it has, how has it benefited you?

    Has it been a positive? Has it been negative? But building relationships, how have that benefited you within your business?

    Spencer Cullor (16:25)
    think it’s key in our business. People do business with who they like, know, and trust. And that takes a long time to build up. You can tear it down real quick. But people bring us specific projects now because they know we’re the right person to take it to the next level. Relationships are extremely important. ⁓ One of our best projects that was brought to us was

    Just we had a project that was near another guy’s project. We helped him out on some due diligence items on helping improving that would benefit both of us. Two years later, he brought us a project off market that was perfect for us. So ⁓ you never know. Sometimes it takes years and years to develop a relationship that may lead to one project. You just never know. But so much of this business happens word of mouth off market. ⁓

    to people that they know can perform. So all of those are extremely critical. And if you get a bad reputation, you retrade, you don’t do what you’re saying you’re gonna do, you can’t perform, that gets run really quick too. And your career in this business will be over real quick.

    Q Edmonds (17:41)
    Absolutely. Yeah, I tell people all the time, people are the real currency. And when you invest in people, it opens up the doors like, yes, it will bring you money opportunities, but it’ll bring you all type of resource. It might connect you with the person that you need to be connected to, might connect you with the process that you need to be connected to. And so I say, know, investing in people is the real currency, really being in invaluable relationships, not just looking at things as transactional.

    or looking at things as really like relating relationship. How can I add value to you? Because once I add value to you, I know in return, you’re going to add value to me one way or another, because that’s just the proximity of relationships. That’s just how it works. And so, yes, I stand with you. I totally agree. is there anything that maybe you can think of that you want to share with the audience that we haven’t said? It could be like a word of.

    inspiration, a word of motivation, a word of education. Like is there anything just along your journey? Because I think I wrote down here 14 years, man, that’s a long time doing what you do. So I know you got, you know, some nuggets there. So is there anything that you maybe wanted to leave with the audience that we haven’t talked

    Spencer Cullor (18:51)
    Yeah, I mean, for people that are looking at doing this on their own, I always say start small, start local. Get to know your market, get to know your projects, start small where you can make afford to make some mistakes. For investors, I tell them all the time, look for people that ⁓ can perform and have a history, a track record performing when things don’t go well.

    because that’s to me what you’re looking for in a general partner is that you want somebody that in case things don’t go well, they’re going to be able to adapt and make a lemon into lemonade. So I think those are really key things from different perspectives there. But I see all the time people trying to start too big, too fast, and then they flame out or.

    know, people going with whoever promises the biggest return percentage or something. And at the end of the day, it’s more about what happens when things don’t go well.

    Q Edmonds (19:51)
    Again, I think for me, the through line is your transparency, right? I think that’s the beautiful thing. You want to tell people, hey, things ain’t always been golden. And so like you said, look for people that know how to perform even when the times get tough. And that takes a level of transparency because how do we know the times haven’t been tough? Listen, I’m going tell you, we’ve hit some rough times. But let me show you what we have done in spite of us hitting these rough times.

    I think listening to you again, that’s the through line that I hear is just transparency, realness, being honest, being integral. And again, I appreciate hearing stuff like that because that lets me know that you’re doing business the right way, a business that people can trust and people really can partner them up with and know that they’re going to find not just success, but long-term success. And so I appreciate you. really, really do.

    Spencer Cullor (20:46)
    Our goal is to be here 10 years from now, not just to make our next project or ⁓ you see all the time these funds that have investor dollars that they have to spend right now or they’re gone and that sometimes pushes them into decisions they wouldn’t have made otherwise. So it’s just, it’s about being patient, looking for the right types of projects for you and looking to be around long-term.

    Q Edmonds (21:14)
    I love it. Listen, if anyone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you,

    Spencer Cullor (21:23)
    Sure, you can check us out on our website, apartmentvestors.com. You can also reach us anytime at 913-324-5900 in our office. we’re always looking at making new relationships and hopefully long-term relationships and seeing how we can add value.

    Q Edmonds (21:43)
    Well, listen, there you are, you heard Mr. Spencer. Mr. Spencer, sir, thank you so much. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your story. Thank you for your perspective. Thank you for the nuggets that you gave about mind shift and just transparency and honesty and just modeling that in your speech in a way that you presented and represented your business and your company. So I appreciate you so much for being here today.

    Spencer Cullor (22:07)
    Thank you for having us. We really appreciate it.

    Q Edmonds (22:11)
    Absolutely.

    Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Spencer. You got the value. Please make sure you are subscribed. I keep telling you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Spencer, and we don’t want you to miss out. So Mr. Spencer, I thank you again. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.

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